Who lives in forgotten places? : Age structure and socio-economic development in Hungary

Kulcsár, László and Kulcsár, László J. and Obádovics, Csilla (2011) Who lives in forgotten places? : Age structure and socio-economic development in Hungary. Regional Statistics : journal of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office, 1. pp. 110-121. ISSN 2063-9538

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Abstract

Socioeconomic development and the age structure of a population are often linked together in the public discourse. It is generally accepted that in industrial societies the populations of more developed regions have both younger age structures and higher levels of education. Consequently, less developed regions or places have older age structures. In this study, we examine the evidence behind this general perception, and discuss the links between age structure and socioeconomic development. There are not very many studies devoted to this particular subject, and while regional development inequalities have a substantial literature, its relation to age structure is less extensively studied (Brunow & Hirte 2006, Voss 2007). One particular example is the case of Scotland (Lisenkova et al. 2010) where the authors examined the impact of age structure on economic development. Their conclusion was that positive net migration is needed to counterbalance the negative economic impact of an older age structure. Scholars from various disciplines, such as sociology, regional economics, political science and anthropology often argue that regional inequalities do not decline, rather increase over time (Spéder 2002, Kulcsár 2009, Bódi 2010). In many countries, including Hungary, a significant portion of the population lives in lagging, or so called “forgotten” places (Lyson & Falk 1993, Ritter 2010). The age structures of these places, however, are not uniform. Some do experience aging in place and negative net migration, while others do not. Therefore, it is not entirely true that in less developed regions and places we can only find aging populations, while in more developed places the populations are always young and increasing due to migration

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